Malik, Kanika
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Malik, Kanika

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overview

  • Dr. Kanika Malik is an educator, mental health researcher, and clinical psychologist. She completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Delhi University, followed by pre-doctoral (M.Phil) and doctoral degrees at the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) and the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) respectively.

    As an educator, Dr. Malik has taught undergraduate honours students of psychology and related disciplines. In her role as a mental health researcher, she has worked on various clinical and community mental health projects, focusing on adolescent mental health, youth mental health, substance use disorders, and training non-specialist providers. Furthermore, Dr. Malik has extensive clinical experience and is a trained and licensed clinical psychologist registered with the Rehabilitation Council of India and the Indian Association of Clinical Psychologists.

    Dr. Malik has received grants from various national and international organizations, including Swasti Health Catalyst, India (as PI), the Wellcome Trust, UK (as PI), and the Wellcome Trust (2023), UK (as Co-I). These grants have supported her research efforts in examining and implementing effective interventions for mental health issues among adolescents and youth in low-resource settings.

research overview

  • Dr. Malik’s doctoral work was the first scientific exploration of female alcoholism in low- and middle-income countries and has been cited by various international and national scientists. After completing her Ph.D., she assumed a leadership role in implementing and evaluating a large-scale stepped care mental health counseling program for school-going adolescents in India. The project’s findings have been published in several high-impact journals and featured in leading print media.

    In 2020, Dr. Malik received her first grant as a Principal Investigator (PI) from the Wellcome Trust. The grant supported a rapid systematic review aimed at identifying active intervention ingredients. During the same year, she also received a grant from Swasti Health Catalyst, a non-profit organization, to train and supervise a team of non-specialist counselors and psychologists in scaling up the stepped care counseling program for schools in Bangalore, India. Both projects have been successfully completed.

    Recently, Dr. Malik and her team were awarded the Wellcome Trust’s ‘Mental Health Award: Looking Backwards, Moving Forward’ grant for a project titled ‘Mechanistic Trial of Problem Solving and Behavioral Activation for Youth Depression (METROPOLIS)’. The project, led by Dr. Daniel Michelson from King’s College London (KCL), U.K., in collaboration with members from O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU), India; Sangath, India (a non-profit); and Youth for Mental Health, India (a non-profit), is a four-year research project scheduled to commence in July 2023.

    As a mental health practitioner-researcher, Dr. Malik has always been driven by curiosity to understand the complex interplay of bio-psycho-social determinants of mental health and a passion for providing innovative, accessible, and evidence-based interventions for underprivileged communities. She has dedicated a significant portion of her early career to working towards these goals and intends to continue advancing in this direction during her tenure at JGU.

teaching overview

  • Dr. Malik has taught the following undergraduate courses at JGU: Counselling Psychology (Theory) and Counselling Psychology (Practicum) in the Fall 2022 & 23 semester, Educational Psychology (Theory) and Educational Psychology (Practicum) in the Spring 2021 semester, Cognitive Psychology in the Fall 2021 semester, and Problem-Solving Counselling (elective) in the Fall 2023 semester. Previously, she served as a lecturer for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Nursing, Psychiatry, and Clinical Psychology at NIMHANS. With over eight years of experience, she specializes in training and mentoring clinical psychology trainees and non-specialist counsellors in case history taking, psychological assessments, and therapies, with a particular focus on cognitive and behavioral approaches.

full name

  • Kanika Malik

primary email

  • kmalik1[@]jgu[dot]edu[dot]in
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